


New Tomorrow

by Cherrytintedglasses



Series: Tomorrows [2]
Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-08
Updated: 2011-12-08
Packaged: 2017-10-27 02:12:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/290523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cherrytintedglasses/pseuds/Cherrytintedglasses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes tomorrow is right around the corner</p>
            </blockquote>





	New Tomorrow

**Author's Note:**

> As with the other story in this series, I wrote this a little over four years ago, and I'm still debating re-editing and writing it. Either way, I hope you enjoy it.

Oshitari blinked awake. After a moment his eyes focused on a dull, off white ceiling that obviously wasn’t his. Turning his head, he noticed his glasses sitting on the bedside table, one of the lenses sticking out of the frame.

With a slight frown, he started to reach out to pick them up, only to be stopped by a gentle tug on his arm. Glancing over he was a bit startled to see an IV in him. He dimly remembered getting hit during a match with Gakuto, but…He was only out for a day right? It couldn’t have done that much damage if he was sitting here now. It was, he decided, probably pain medication.  
_____________  
A nurse walked into the room to do the morning rounds checking the patients. It wasn’t exciting, especially here in the coma ward, but it needed to be done. As she entered she did a quick glance around the room, doing a quick double take of the bed. The patient was sitting there. Awake. And that was…strange to say the least. Once someone was sent to the coma ward, it was basically a given thing that they wouldn’t wake up. So one of them actually coming back from where ever they went was, well, almost unheard of.

If she remembered right, this young man, one Oshitari Yuushi his chart read, had been here for roughly five years. That just added to the strangness of this whole thing. If someone was going to wake up, they usually did it within weeks of going into a coma. As far she knew the doctors had pretty much given up on this case as soon as he had come in, only keeping him alive at his parents insistence.

“Good morning.”

She was a startled back to the situation at hand by the patient talking to her. He had a nice deep voice under the rough sounds of disuse, which was to be expected after waking from a five years asleep.  
“Uh…Morning. How are you…” She glanced at the chart again to be sure of his name. “Oshitari-san?”

“Pretty good, I think…Can you tell me here I am?”

“Uh…Yes. Of course. You’re in Tokyo General Hospital.” That’s true…He was unconscious when he was brought in, or so she had been told, so he wouldn’t know where he was. He also probably wouldn’t know the date. “It’s April 21, 2011.”  
_____________

Oshitari blinked. April 21st? But that was before the day of the—Wait?! 2011? That’s five years AFTER the day the match was held…What the hell is going on?

“2011? But…Last thing I knew it was 2006…” He trailed off waiting for, what he hoped would be an explanation.

“You were brought in unconscious after some sort of head trauma. The doctors couldn’t revive you, so they sent you here. Where you’ve been in for the past five years. Here is the Coma Ward, by the way.”

“Ah.”

That…explained where he was, and how he got there. But not why he was there exactly, which would be why couldn’t they wake him up. Sighing he flopped back onto the bed, trying to piece together all the information he had just received.

_________

Seeing that he was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the information, and the entire situation probably, the nurse started to make her way to the exit.

“If you’ll excuse me, I need to make some phone calls, let people, your family included, know you’re awake. If you need anything, please hit the button and someone will come help you as soon as they can.”

Taking his absent nod as one of agreement, she beat a hasty retreat out of the room. Part of the reason she liked working the coma ward was because she didn’t like dealing with talking to people. It made her uncomfortable. Making her way to the nurse’s station for the phone, she wondered briefly if she should try to contact the gentleman who came and visited Oshitari-san every week – two weeks. He had for as long as she had been working this ward. Longer if what the other nurses said was right.

Giving it a moments thought she decided not too. He hadn’t come last week, so he was almost guaranteed to show up this week, and today was his visiting day. So, she decided, he would find out soon enough.

__________

“You’re joking. You have to be joking.”

Gakuto stared at the nurse in shock. She was one of the newer ones to the ward, so he had yet to learn her name, but she had seemed nice enough. Had being the keyword.

“I’m sorry, but I’m not. A colleague of mine went in this morning to do the morning rounds, and he was awake when she walked in. If you don’t believe me, you can go see him for yourself.”

Glancing at her, obviously not believing a word she said, he started off for Oshitari’s room.

“ Alrihgt…But I will get you back if you’re lying!”

_______________

Oshitari looked over at the doorway when it opened, and almost immediately disregarded the person as someone he didn’t know. That was, until they spoke.

“Yuushi?”

Oshitari’s head snapped back around at that, and he looked, actually looked, at them. Taking in the hair color, and combining it with his visitor’s height [or lack there-of] he decided it was Gakuto. Besides, he was the only person to call him by his given name, other than his parents.

He examined his friend, looking to see how five years had changed him. His shoulders had broadened a bit, and he gained, maybe half an inch in height. His features had left behind the soft roundness of childhood, becoming stronger, and more angular. His eyes didn’t seem as cruel as they had back in junior high, but that could be a trick the light was playing.

“Yes?”

Gakuto’s eyes widened, as if he couldn’t believe that this was happening. Which, given the situation, he might not. Oshitari thought with a hint of bitterness.

“Yuushi…Is that…Are you really awake?”

“Well, I’d like to think that I’m not talking in my sleep, but you never can tell.”

Gakuto laughed a little, out of relief, or actually thinking that was funny was anyone’s guess. After that short burst of laughter an awkward silence fell over them. Oshitari not knowing what to say, or ask, and Gakuto not knowing where to begin.

“So…How’s everyone been?” It was a good a place to start as any, Oshitari guessed.

“I…don’t really know. I kind of lost contact with almost everyone after highschool. Sometimes I still talk to Atobe, but…that’s about it.”

“Oh.”

After hesitating for a moment, Gakuto continued. “There is going to be a tennis team reunion soon…If you want to go. Personally, I think if both Shishido and Ohtori are going to be there, I’m going to have ‘other plans’ that day.”

“Oh? And why’s that? Too sweet for you?” Oshitari couldn’t help teasing his former partner a little about his intolerance for the sweetness those two usually had.

“Err…well…No. Not exactly. Actually I wish that was the reason.”

“They aren’t overly sweet anymore? What happened? They get tired of each other?”

“Well…I don’t the whole story, I’m not sure even *Atobe* knows everything that happened, but...Sometime during our second year of high school, Ohtori’s first, something happened between them. Whatever it was pissed Shishido off not that should surprise anyone, but…Well, you know how he was. He started picking fights, kind of, with Ohtori. And…Things just went downhill from there. Eventually they broke up. Ohtori started dating Oishi, you remember the kid from Seigaku’s Golden Pair with the funny hair, right afterwards. Which offended Shishido, I guess because he viewed it as being ‘replaced’, and…Ever since then it’s been…awkward to be around both of them. And they still don’t seem to get along anymore.”

“They broke up? That…I didn’t think that that would ever happen.”

“Neither did anyone else, but it did. And well…A lot changes in five years.”

“I’m starting to figure that out.”

“Heh, look I have to go. Plans, studying and all that good stuff. Uhh…I’ll visit again soon. My cell number is still the same, if you remember it, so if need me for something…Call. Until then…take care of yourself.”

“I’ll try. You too, I’ll be sure to call you sometime soon.”

It wasn’t like Oshitari had anything better to do anyways.

_____________

Weeks passed and Oshitari was released from the hospital. He moved in with his parents, at least for the time being, and started a program to help him get something like a high school diploma. Then he would get to face the dreaded college entrance exams.

It wasn’t easy, but he was getting his life back on track where it had left off. He hung out with Gakuto sometimes, but things were still awkward. Gakuto wasn’t the same person he knew back in Jr. High. He had calmed down, become more reasonable, for the most part. Whenever they talked it was like he was talking to a stranger that had stolen his best friend’s body.

They talked about current events mostly, nothing too personal. Occasionally something would happen and they would slide into the comfortable familiarity they used to have, but it never lasted long. Something would come up, and bring a sharp reminder that he knew next to nothing about this Gakuto. What he did know was the basics. Gakuto had left the tennis team to do gymnastics; he had gotten a scholarship for his gymnastics to the university he was attending. Simple things like that.

He didn’t know Gakuto’s friends, what he did for fun, or even if his favorite food was still the same. And he was too scared to ask, scared that his best friend may have changed so completely that they would never get what they had back.

It wasn’t that he didn’t like what Gakuto had become. He was still attractive, and athletic. But he wasn’t as volatile, temperamental, or bratty as he used to be.

He wrinkled his nose as he walked toward his and Gakuto’s meeting place. He had to admit he was attracted to his best friend, though he doubted Gakuto still considered him that. He just wasn’t sure how to handle it. Should he ‘confess’, or keep quiet? Risk losing what they had, in the hopes of gaining more?

As he rounded the corner, the wheels going in his mind stopped. Gakuto was there, waiting. Nothing unusual about that. But this time he was smoking. It didn’t really matter to Oshitari one way the other if someone smoked, but it was still a shock to him that he hadn’t known. Back in jr. high, before he…went to sleep, he could usually tell if someone smoked.

“Hey.”

“Hey.” The reply came without the red-head even looking at him.

“You know…Smoking is generally considered bad for you.”

Gakuto finally glanced over at him. “Since when did you care about what’s ‘generally considered bad’ for someone?”

“Since…” He hesitated before deciding that he might as well admit it. “I started finding certain people attractive.”

Raising an eyebrow, the red-head stayed quiet for a moment, considering what was said. “You know, I don’t date my best friends. Former or current.”

“Ah. And why’s that?”

“It usually ends up getting messy. Very messy.”

“Mmm…” Staying silent for a moment, the taller man mulled over that. “And what about people you’ve just met?”

“I…guess I might. But that doesn’t really matter. We ‘haven’t just met’ Yuushi. We’ve known each other for a long time.”

“Then let’s start over.”

Gakuto gave him a disbelieving look. “Are you crazy? How can we ‘start over’? We’ve known each other since jr. high. You can’t just erase all of that.”

“Sure we can. We haven’t talked for five years; I haven’t even seen you for that long. Because of that, we don’t know each other anymore. Not really anyways. So let’s start over.”

Sighing the red-head snuffed out his cigarette and decided to humor the former tensai. “Okay and how exactly do we do that?”

Grinning a grin that looked dangerously close to a smirk, he bowed. “Oshitari Yuushi. Nice to meet you.”

Giving him an amused look, the red-head bowed back. “Mukahi Gakuto. The pleasure is all mine, Oshitari-san.”

“There’s something I want to ask you, Mukahi-san.”

“And that is?”

“Would you do me the honor of going on a date with me?”

Gakuto shook his head, and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like ‘You don’t give up do you?’ “I don’t know…” He had to resist smirking at the way Oshitari’s face fell. “Let’s get to know each other a little better before I say one way or the other.”

Oshitari nodded, smiling a little. “But that isn’t a solid ‘No’, right?”

Gakuto nodded. “Right.”

“Then what do you say we get to know each other over a cup of coffee?”

“I think…I would like that.”


End file.
